Vishal to lead colts in U-19 tie

Talented Jamshedpur batsman Vishal Singh has been retained captain of the Jharkhand one-day outfit for the upcoming Under-19 Vinoo Mankad Trophy zonal league one-day tournament (east zone) to be held in Assam from October 20 to 28.

Vishal, who possesses a sound technique and the ability to withstand pressure during crunch situations, is being viewed as a bright prospect.

Dhanbad's Suman Dutt is the new face in the squad, which includes Vishal's sibling Virat, a promising batsman who was part of the national Under-16 camp at National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Rajiv Kumar and Satish Singh have been appointed coaches while former Ranji medium-pacer Devesh Chandra is the trainer. R.R. Mishra will play the role of manager.

Jharkhand will begin their campaign against Assam on October 20 and follow it up with matches versus Odisha (October 24), Tripura (October 26) and Bengal (October 28). The matches will be played in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh.

The boys have been picked from 19 cricketers who attended the final training camp in Jamshedpur from October 6 to 15. Former skipper Pappu Kumar Singh, Sumit Kumar, Rohit Raj and Jagdish Pradhan have been overlooked.

The list of 19 had been pruned from 41 who had attended the last training camp in September. The initial list of 41 had been selected on the basis of their performance last season. The boys had attended a four-day fitness camp from August 29 to September 1.

JSCA assistant secretary Ashim Kumar Singh said performance of the players in the Vinoo Mankad tourney would be a basis of selection of the state squad for the Cooch Behar Trophy.

Ranji squad

Jharkhand selectors have named only one tyro, Ranchi left-armer Ajay Yadav, in the 15-member state squad for the Ranji campaign announced on Sunday. Left arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem will lead the side, which will play its first match against Jammu and Kashmir from November 25.